“Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson.”

What Obama’s best speeches have in common

James Fallows – the former chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter – usually has interesting things to say about political speeches. Here he distills some thoughts on some of Obama’s bigger speeches since becoming president. The whole thing is worth reading, but it boils down to this.

“Most of the time, “effective” speeches boil down to finding a better, clearer, cleverer, more vivid, or more memorable way to express what people already think.”

And later:

“I’m not saying that all his plans are going to work. I’m not saying that his big set-piece speeches are cliche-free. As argued earlier, often they’re not even that “well written,” in a fancy-phrasemaking sense. I am saying: there’s a reason they seem similar as a group and different from normal political rhetoric. The difference is, they’re asking us to change our minds.”